Sony Xperia Z5 Premium (2015)

Nothing but problems – I've had to have this phone replaced twice in the past 18 months. The first phone's headphone jack stopped working at around the 6 month mark and then it randomly turned itself off and never turned back on again at around the 8 month mark. The replacement phone only lasted 9 months before it did the exact same thing, so I'm on my 3rd phone now. … Read more

With each phone I've noticed it regularly overheats and often the screen fades to black so I have to restart (which fills me with dread that it will again be the black screen of death).

The camera is great, but there are some serious issues with the operating system.

It's a shame because I had no issues with the Xperia z3 and enjoyed it.

awful overheating phone – Sony's main problem with their phones that overheat and drain/ wears out the battery. After 2 years this phone is completely useless and my z3 went the same way. I also have a sony tablet with similar specs that switches itself off for no apparent reason. Whilst sony are great for VR headsets in my opinion they are the completely useless in phones, avoid, avoid, avoid!  Show details

Volume gone ....Same problem as many comments all over the internet. RUBBISH – Bought with Optus Plan, promised the world got rubbish...my old Nokia brick was better. Cannot use calls as no one can hear me. If I turn to speaker output I cannot hear them but they hear me.... took to optus store but warranty no use as a crack in back glass, extremely common from what I have seen online with this junk phone. This is the most… Read more

expensive and the worst phone I have ever had. I do not like giving even 1 Star. Save your money and blood pressure. Don't buy this rubbish especially via Optus.

Great – I'm using this phone at the moment and it's the best phone I've had. Large screen and loud speakers are great. The battery life is absolutely fantastic and much better than apple. It feels great but would not suit people that have small hands. Seems to have great interface to interact with and is not complicated at all.  Show details

For 6 month 2 time fixed – Purchased from virgin mobile. In a first six month two times fixed buttons for volume and camera, just stop working, just service was pretty fast one week without phone is good. Now freeze all the time and need to restart all the time. Battery from beginning is around one day or less.  Show details

Keeps stalling and forces a restart – I've been a long time fan of Sony Xperia, I had the Z2 earlier till my car drove over it :( :( The Z5 premium, I thought would be better, but I have faced stalling every other day. It goes into a no response mode and I have to take the Sim out to force a restart. This started happening when I upgraded the OS to Android 7.0 and software version to… Read more

32.3.A.2.33 (which the system forced me to upgrade, with constant reminders). Since then I regret it. Can't go back to default without losing all settings.

Nothing but trouble – This phone has been unreliable from the start. Gets hot, even when not in use, then becomes unresponsive. Can't even shut it down. It's done this from new without any third party software. You never know when it's going to work. I've followed suggestions from various sites without luck. The touchscreen is also difficult to use. Very disappointing… Read more

for such an expensive phone. I've had to give up on it while having to pay off it's plan for another year and buy another phone outright. Never again for a Sony or a premium phone.

Unreliable – This phone has a mind of its own. It freezes and shuts down without warning and for no obvious reason. The volume reduces on its own accord. Impossible to get repaired as sony keep saying they are unable to replicate the problem, however, the web is full of complaints about this phone. Keep clear of sony phones!  Show details

Never again- – Came highly recommended from a friend when I was looking for a new phone. I had an iPhone and thid is nowhere near as functional as my old phone. Camera was the main reason I got it but reality has been very different. The picture quality comes nowhere near that of my old iPhone. Will go back to iPhone when I can get out of contract.  Show details

Wish I got the samsung – This is the second model I have had issues with, first I thought I got a lemon with the Z3 but having very similar problems with the Z5. 1st. to get repaired through the manufactures (to keep the warranty valid) costs more than any other phone. 2nd. The back is ridiculously fragile, MUST HAVE COVER, both cases, the phones dropped from a low… Read more

height (1-2 ft) and shattered the back glass.

3rd. Battery drains super fast, even with battery saver on.

4th. Lock button/power doesn't work, seems to be a common trait as there a plenty of posts from others with no real solution besides a round-about way

I REALLY REALLY WISHED I GOT A DIFFERENT PHONE!

Best camera ever – For anyone wanting a phone for a good camera the sony Z5 Mobiles are brilliant. I love my phone, nice big screen, not to complicated to use, unlike most smart phones these days. The Z5 battery life is great too, lasts alot longer then most phones. I used to always get a samsung phone but now ive had a Z5 ill never go back! Sorry samsung..not sorry! Haha  Show details

Good phone only small issues with screen – Sony Xperia z5 premium has been a good phone. Only issue I have had is the screen goes black and I can't press buttons when in a call unless it's connected to Bluetooth or a headset/headphones. Other than that it's been great and big screen has been awesome. Excellent resolution and usability is also great.  Show details

Headphone socket not working after sometime - manufacturing defect? – My headphone socket stopped working after 9 months(Bought from JBhifi). I used only MDR1000 Sony headphones. They refused to cover it under warranty bcos I misused it. Not sure how did they claim it as misuse when I only use it with their headphone. I am about to take it further with ACCC under not in acceptable quality. It should last long… Read more

and and it should work with any proper 3.5mm jack in the market. no one can claim it as in acceptable quality, if it doesn't work or fail within few months.

Please do below test if you have the same problem before you send it to repairs.

1. Download Soundabout app

2. Go to Settings > media audio >

3. Choose wired headset manually (with mic or without mic).

4. test it (my one works)

Sony technicians classified it as a "PHYSICAL DAMAGE" (looks like now they use cheap headphobne sockets)

I am bit concern about their other products I already bought. Now they don't make things to last long. You can pay big $$$ for their products and muck around with their poor after sales service and quality. Consider before you buy something.

Know your consumer rights. If it's not right use your rights.

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/repair-replace-refund

Great phone ruined by terrible software – The phone itself looks sleek and has an excellent UI. 4K resolution is excellent for the price. The phone being waterproof is also an obvious benefit. The mirrored back is very useful. It doesn't seem like it would be a very useful addition but I found that having it there was great. The problem with the phone is that it overheats and freezes.… Read more

When calls are received, the phone will not allow you to answer them and freezes when you try to slide the green button to answer the phone.

Lives Up to High Expectations – We seem to be in mobile phone heaven at the moment with many brands coming up with superbly performing phones with apps and features galore. My last two phones have been SONY and I haven't been disappointed. I had the Compact version previously but missed that big area to read emails and view photos and so on. The new Xperia premium is another step with everything I need-particularly a good camera and high quality sound. Highly recommended.  Show details

good product – this phone is really a beauty and i love sony's design very much. there are two world leading breakthrough on it. the first one is that the finger print sensor is on the right side and the second one is the screen revolution is 4K. both two features are the world's first  Show details

Very good, robust phone – Have been using it for the past 1.5 years. Has done well. Sony's battery life management is really good. Battery DOES last 2 days on fair usage (messaging, calling, browsing). Display is awesome. It has impressed me for the longest time. Always received software updates from Sony. Sony's UI is snappy, there are free themes for download. I will stay with the Xperia series in the future.  Show details

Satisfied but can be better – I am a fan of sony smartphone. I used Z2 and now using Z5 premium. Battery life is excellent. While everybody hastes the shape of the sony set, I love the it and call it an executive style. Camera is good, performance is fast but only problem I having recently that is in the morning I have to restart the mobile. I have no idea what's happening. This is annoying. Otherwise sony Z5 premium is a good choice for a smartphone.  Show details

Not for heavy usage or if u want to play pokemon go – Overheats when i play pokemon go with it for more than 30mins. Apple iphone doesnt do that...so i reckon if u play those rpg or heavy duty games on the phone... Otherwise it is a good phone. Does everything u need to do. Though the apps does crash sometimes, if u have too much apps open. But that's normal. I think the phone is too big, and… Read more

i only got this instead of the smaller version i was eyeing on because it cost $0 per mth instead of $5 per mth get the normal version on contract.

Pretty average phone – Slippery case that is easy to drop, poor set-up of apps, this a phablet and is huge especially when you add a protective case. The camera is hopeless even 23 mega pixels doesn't matter as it has poor focus and slow recovery times. The battery does not last two days if used normally and after less than 8 months it goes flat very quickly already so… Read more

it will be dead before my two year contract is up plus not having a user replaceable battery it is very very expensive to have it replaced with the water and dust resistance warranty intact. The 4 K screen just uses the battery power very quickly and is not that special as a feature.

I will not be getting another one of these as there are many way better phones available.

So far not good – I bought this phone 3 weeks ago. Within 2 days the power button stopped working and the phone turned itself off a few days later and wouldn't come back on. When googling for a fix I found this is a common problem with Sony phones. Luckily I had a warranty and got a replacement, but had I known about the malfunction I would not have bought this… Read more

phone. Learn from my mistake.

Update: Jan 2019. After having months of my phone overheating and freezing constantly it finally died one morning and would not turn back on. Do not buy Sony Phones they are crap!!

The worst phone I have ever owned! – In a nut shell, this is the worst phone I have ever owned! I was in need of a new phone and thought I would try Sony again since I hadn't had a Sony phone since my old W580 back when flip-up and slide-up phones were the 'in thing'. Well, initial reviews were mostly positive for the Z5 and the phone checked all the boxes for what I wanted. Having a… Read more

4K screen on a phone is 'meh' in my opinion but hey, I thought I would the Z5 premium a go. Worst mistake ever!

After setting everything up, everything seemed to be fine and dandy until I noticed how hot the phone got with general use. Figured it wasn't that big of deal as surely Sony would have tested the phone prior to release and determined the excess heat doesn't have a negative impact on performance; I was wrong. Shortly into ownership, the 'freezing' started to happen. Ok, still not that big of a deal, right? I mean, a lot of phones have a hiccup here and there. This however, continued. It happened over and over again until eventually, when it happened, I just put the phone down and let it have its seizure until it was ready to function again instead of fighting with the power button to restart it.

Then there is the camera. The camera itself is fine; great in fact! It takes really nice photo's, and has the ability to shoot in 1080p @60fps and 4K. The average consumer will love the camera on this phone! This is of course if the phone doesn't force close the camera app on you due to overheating. Yep, overheating with the camera app open happens every time after only a couple minutes. Good luck to those that wish to shoot 4K video regularly.

So the display. Well...its nice, but 4K in a smart phone? Meh. It look's very average compared to my new Galaxy S8+.

Battery life. The phone might as well have asthma; it runs out of puff pretty quick. Ok, It's not thaaaat bad to the average user, but if you are someone who uses their phone a lot during the day, you're going to be very disappointed. Battery life was terrible compared to my Huawei Mate 8 which rarely dropped below 50% after a whole day.

The glass on the back of the phone cracks and spiders out super easy. I had no major drops but the back is totally stuffed. I guess this isn't a big deal if you enjoy picking tiny shards of glass out of your hands.

So where does this leave me? Well, the other day the phone had one of its seizures and I attempted to turn it off by fighting with the power button until the power menu finally decided to show itself. I managed to turn it off, but now, yep you guessed it, I can't turn it back on. I have tried over and over again but nothing. I can feel the power button physically engaging but it refuses to turn on. If I plug the phone into the charger, the screen turns on and is even so lovely as to tell me the battery percentage but I still still can't turn it on. So yeah, now I have to pay to have the phone fixed (if I can) just so I can recover all the photo's and video's of my little boy.

Needless to say, I had to get another phone, so I opted for the Galaxy S8+ and it's amazing in comparison! It's better in every way. The build quality of the S8+ is much better than the Z5 Premium, and obviously far surpasses that of my last Galaxy which I think was an S4. Seriously though, the S8+ doesn't feel like a cheap bit of plastic like the older generations did, this actually has weight to it and feels solid.

In summary.

Pros:

-The camera is nice if you could actually use it for any length of time

-The phone makes a great hand warmer.

Cons:

Pretty much everything else.

The best mobile phone – I purchased 2 Sony Xperia Z5 Premium for my parents and they loved it so much! We have all been using Sony electronic devices for a long time from TV, mobile phone, camera, MP3, media player (cassette and CD). Sony never failed us! Their mobile phone is affordable yet the qualities they offer is top notch. Long battery life, great camera quality,… Read more

easy to use applications, attractive external outlook and they offer various colors to choose from. Highly recommended!

The phone that suits me – This phone is just the answer to all my needs. It seems like my own small computer. At first, I didnt believe this phone would be useful but after a while I cant live without my phone. This phone is so useful that I panic when I dont see my phone or its not within my reach.  Show details

Good functionality but the waterproof is not cool – The battery is drains in approx 4hrs is you use the camera, and or have screen on high power and GPS. Be careful some gps apps do not close down gps and you need to force stop the app otherwise the battery die quick The xperia update is dam annoying as it allows peeking on your apps after every update!!!! Dam annoying this I truly dislike as I… Read more

have to turn them off again.

The face recognition and voice recognition do work but is hit and miss, I still use it but would like it to be better.

The camera is responsive

The apps are responsive

Google voice is good

Voice activation is good most of the time but you will find yourself saying "ok google" a number of times

Voice to txt is awesome I use this alot

Backup works great

Storage is silly given it results in your phone turning off, why would you do that.

The speaker is poor sound

The loud speaker on phone is average

The waterproof is terrible any water in the headphone jack makes your phone go crazy and renders it useless until it dries

The corners of the phone fall off as they are only glued on so a protective case is a must

The phone gets quite hot on camera

Look the phone is good to use I love it but there are definitely some improvements

Awsome phone! – My old Xperia is around 6 yrs old and still going great, just thought the time was right to update, great phone's!. Sony really know there stuff everything is set out to make it easy to use for people like myself who are not the greatest with phone's, once again great phone's  Show details

Poor customer service. Don't trust the water proof – Please don't buy their phone. It really gonna waste your money. Sony claims that it is water proof which means that the phone has no problem to rinse under the tap water. However, my phone got water damage after rinsing under the tap water. I'm very sure that the seal was all closed firmly during the rinse, but now they not allow me to repair or… Read more

replace. I contacted their Xperia customer service which was not helpful. It's much better to go for an iPhone which comes with a much better customer service. This was the first time and also last time to buy their phone!!!

Great phone but there are some problems – This phone is beautifully designed. Battery life is good compared to the Sony Xperia TX I used before. The 4k screen display is amazing. Screen size is good. However, there are some problems. The major problem is that the headphone jack won't be able to detect the headphone after I have this phone for 4 months. I initially thought it was a… Read more

hardware problem and sent my phone back to repair under warranty. When they were examining my phone, I had a look on the Internet and found there are a lot of people having the same problem, To solve this, we need to download an app called SoundAbout to manually select all the sound going through headphone. But the service center told me I bent my phone and therefore classified my claim as physical damage of hardware, which is not covered by warranty. They quote $630 for a replacement for the phone. But I have always kept the phone in very good condition and there is no way I bent it.

After I got my phone back, I downloaded SoundAbout and the headphone works perfectly. It means this is a software problem, not a hardware problem. I am very disappointed with the fact that such an expensive phone is having this basic problem. I am also very disappointed by how the service center handled this issue. They didn't tell me the truth but accused me of bending my phone. I know if I pay $630 for a replacement, the same problem will appear again in a few months. So the service center is very dishonest.

Another problem is that sometimes when you use camera, the phone will be frozen and it takes 10 minutes to restart. It is annoying cause you have to stand at the same place to wait for 10 minutes in order to take a photo. Lucky that it doesn't happen too often but it does happen from time to time.

The screen is very hard to read until sunlight. Even I turn the brightness to the highest but still can't see anything under sunlight. This is very disappointing as well.

Sometimes there is an overheat issue. The phone can get quite hot when you are just browsing the Internet.

Apart from that, this phone works quite good.

But the headphone jack problem and how the service center handled this issue are likely to stop me from buying any Sony phones in the future.

Awesome phone – I've had iPhones. I've had Samsung Galaxy's. This baby takes the cake what an awesome phone. For starters I loved apple when it first came out it was the trend setter but now is a relic. Samsung galaxy took its mantle but has since fallen behind. I was dubious about getting the Sony xperia z5 premium as I had never seen one before. Best decision… Read more

ever. It has a fast processor, awesome screen resolution, 24mp camera, excellent battery life and is also water resistant. There is only one minor issue with the phone and that is the glass over the camera lens. The lens apparently scratches easily which is a bit of a let down but just have to be careful. Apart from that it is awesome.